Brooks was prolific quilt artist
After retiring from work as a nurse’s aide in 1992, Ella Mae Brooks “was bored, so bored.”
After teaching herself how to sew and discovering she enjoyed it, Brooks became a prolific maker of free-form quilts. Respected for her creativity, her quilts were shown in “Seams,” a recent multigenerational exhibit of textile art at Milwaukee’s Portrait Society Gallery.
Brooks died Nov. 28 in Milwaukee. The cause of death was heart-related, according to her daughter Phyllis Jones. Brooks was 74.
“Her method was free-form and guided by a sensitive connection to color and pattern,” Portrait Society Gallery owner Debra Brehmer wrote in a tribute to Brooks. “She knew when to cool things off and when to add perky patches of a chili pepper design or rainbow stripes. She sewed with an interesting double zig-zag stitch that created marvelous patterns on the fronts and backs of the quilts.”
In a phone interview, Brehmer said Brooks visited the exhibit several times. “I think being part of a community of artists may have been rare for her.” Brehmer had hoped to bring Brooks and the exhibit’s other artists together for a reception, but the COVID-19 pandemic made that impossible.
Brooks’ personality “was funny and buoyant and sassy,” Brehmer said — the “exact qualities” she put into her quilts, which broke rules but did so with an “astute sense of composition.”
When she was a young teen, Brooks’ family moved to Milwaukee in 1959 from Greenwood, Miss., for a better life.
In a 2006 interview with the Journal Sentinel’s Nancy A. Herrick, Brooks talked about a familial influence on her work.
“I remember my mother would quilt,” Brooks said. “She made quilts out of old clothes. She did it her way, and I do it my way, but she taught me to use what you have on hand.”
“I’m from the old school,” Brooks said. “My patches are never exactly the same.”
Beyond quilts, she also made placemats, table runners and small tote bags for women to carry Bibles to church.
Jones said her mother was quick on her feet and worked hard at networking, going around to many small stores to ask them to display her quilts. Her business, Ella’s Quilts, was still active at the time of her death.
Brooks also taught quilting classes at Washington High School and in her home.
In addition to Phyllis Jones, Brooks is survived by her children Shirley Brown-Martin, Clarence Robinson, Christine Fason, Theresa Porter and Anita Jones. Her family has a GoFundMe page to help raise money for funeral expenses at gf.me/u/zaqc5g.